Looking Forward

If you know me, you know that I like to rethink things. I like to look for the unseen and unforeseen elements in things. I like to try to buck the trends, and almost always adhere to the less-is-more concept. This is true of how I view church, as well.

Traditional thinking tells us there are two ways to measure the status of a church. One is to measure the amount of people attending the Sunday morning services. Another is to measure the amount of dollars being given to the church. In those two areas we have seen wonderful increase in 2018. But since I tend to rethink things, we have been paying attention to something I like to call “Body Life.”

To me, “Body Life” is measured in the amount of unity, participation, and testimonies produced. 2018 has been an incredible year of “Body Life” at Living Streams. Through our pray and fasting nights, kinetic missions, sermon series, volunteers, deacons, food pantry, groups, summer camps, youth activities, 3-to-5 Hang, pastoral care, hospital visits, weddings, funerals, baptisms, baby dedications, and online community endeavors we have experienced inspiring unity, seen broad enthusiastic participation, and heard countless testimonies of “Body Life.” We are rejoicing.

As I look forward to 2019, the faithfulness of our God, creativity of our leaders, and the encouragement of our congregation has me very excited. Last year we focused on seeing the potential energy for good in our church become kinetic. Next year we plan to focus on the home front.

We want to see people grow in their understanding of God’s heart for them and their families. We want to see the hearts of the parents turned toward their children, and the hearts of the children toward their parents. We want people to understand God is not interested in making us “good at church.” He is interested in making us good at the other hours—the hours we live outside of church. We want to see the deceptive ideas normalized in our sinful society give way to the grace and truth found in the Bible.